A drama unfolded in the Knesset Oct. 21 after opposition members managed to surprise the coalition and authorize the creation of a committee to investigate the submarine affair that implicates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin directed to cancel the vote. A joint announcement with his deputy, Mansour Abbas of the Arab Joint List, who conducted the meeting, stated, “After we watched the video from the Knesset plenum, we both decided that it would be right to cancel the results of the vote and to hold it again.”
Only a few days later, Abbas posted on his Facebook page that government secretary Tzachi Braverman personally informed him that the prime minister decided to put the extension of the five-year plan for the Arab population (decision 922) and Bedouin localities (decision 1480) on the agenda for the next government meeting slated for Oct. 25.
Abbas’ post generated an immediate reaction by Minister for Social Equality and Pensioners Meirav Cohen, who responded, “These are plans we have been working on hard for months, led by the Authority for Economic Development of the Arab Sector at the Ministry for Social Equality, the Council of Heads of Arab Local Authorities and Knesset members of the Joint List. It has no connection to what happened this week at the Knesset plenum. These are very important plans and I am proud to present them to the government for approval — it’s a right and not a gift.”
The decision was indeed brought to the government and was approved as Abbas had announced, but the reactions by his own party members revealed the deep division within the Joint List — a growing rift between Abbas’ Raam party and its other constituent parties. Chairman of the Joint List Knesset faction Ahmad Tibi — who is also the chairman of the Taal party — congratulated Cohen and the Finance Ministry for a step in the right direction. Not a word about Abbas. Chairman of the Joint List party Ayman Odeh did the same. He also made sure not to mention Abbas or offer him any credit for the move.
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